Hymns to the Night 6: Longing for Death
Into the bosom of the earth,
Out of the Light's dominion,
Death's pains are but a bursting forth,
Sign of glad departure.
Swift in the narrow little boat,
Swift to the heavenly shore we float.
Blessed be the everlasting Night,
And blessed the endless slumber.
We are heated by the day too bright,
And withered up with care.
We're weary of a life abroad,
And we now want our Father's home.
What in this world should we all
Do with love and with faith?
That which is old is set aside,
And the new may perish also.
Alone he stands and sore downcast
Who loves with pious warmth the Past.
The Past where the light of the senses
In lofty flames did rise;
Where the Father's face and hand
All men did recognize;
And, with high sense, in simplicity
Many still fit the original pattern.
The Past wherein, still rich in bloom,
Man's strain did burgeon glorious,
And children, for the world to come,
Sought pain and death victorious,
And, through both life and pleasure spake,
Yet many a heart for love did break.
The Past, where to the flow of youth
God still showed himself,
And truly to an early death
Did commit his sweet life.
Fear and torture patiently he bore
So that he would be loved forever.
With anxious yearning now we see
That Past in darkness drenched,
With this world's water never we
Shall find our hot thirst quenched.
To our old home we have to go
That blessed time again to know.
What yet doth hinder our return
To loved ones long reposed?
Their grave limits our lives.
We are all sad and afraid.
We can search for nothing more --
The heart is full, the world is void.
Infinite and mysterious,
Thrills through us a sweet trembling --
As if from far there echoed thus
A sigh, our grief resembling.
Our loved ones yearn as well as we,
And sent to us this longing breeze.
Down to the sweet bride, and away
To the beloved Jesus.
Have courage, evening shades grow gray
To those who love and grieve.
A dream will dash our chains apart,
And lay us in the Father's lap.
Related quotes
Bible in Poetry: 1 John 4
Do not believe in all spirits;
Find out if they have come from God;
False prophets have come to the world;
But how can you ascertain them?
A spirit that acknowledges
That Jesus came in flesh from God,
Is from God, Almighty Father;
And that which says that Christ isn’t Lord,
Is spirit of the antichrist,
Which you have heard is coming now,
And has already entered world.
You are from God too, dear children;
You’ve overcome the bad spirits;
The one in you is greater than
The one found in the world by man;
They’re from the world and speak like-wise;
The world listens as they entice;
Whoev’r knows God, listens to us,
As we are also from same God;
Whoever isn’t from God does not,
Then listen to us anytime.
This is the way to recognize,
The true spirit from that, that’s false!
God’s Love and Ours:
Dear friends, lets love one another,
As love comes from God the Father;
The ones who love are born of God,
For God is love and love knows God.
God showed His love for all of us,
By sending His one Son Jesus,
Into the world, die for our sins,
Like Lamb of God for sacrifice;
So that, we may then live through Him.
God’s love is not because we loved
Him, but He loved man as beloved;
We ought to love one another,
As God loved us like our Father;
No one has ev’r seen God as yet,
But if we love one another,
God will reside in us forev’r!
We live in Him and He in us,
As He has given His spirit;
We testify we’ve seen the Son,
Whom Father sent as world’s Savior;
If you acknowledge Son Of God,
God lives in him and he in God;
Therefore we know God’s love for us.
As God is love, whoever loves,
Then lives in God and God in Him;
Thus, love is made wholesome in us;
We’ll stand in confidence ‘fore God,
On Judgment-Day as we’re like Him.
There is no need for fear in love,
For, perfect love drives out all fear;
Fear comes when we await God’s rod;
Imperfect is the love with fear.
God loved us first and then we love;
The one who says, ‘I love God but
Hate my brother is a liar! ’
He who does not love his brother,
Although he has seen him so well,
Cannot love God, the unseen one;
God has given this commandment:
‘Whoev’r loves God, loves his brethren.’
poem by John Celes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Death shall have no dominion
Death shall have no dominion
even if demons do their thing
faith will buckler it,
shielding each penetrating blow.
Death shall have no dominion
when the almighty Lord comes,
then love will conquer all
and the chains gripping the body
and the soul will lie in pieces
and fall on the earth and sea.
United people will be
with loved ones even from
far ages past,
will dwell in sincerity
with their creator, Father and friend
and the spell will forever be broken
when life is set to what it was
and what it will be.
poem by Gert Strydom
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Time Long Past
Like the ghost of a dear friend dead
Is Time long past.
A tone which is now forever fled,
A hope which is now forever past,
A love so sweet it could not last,
Was Time long past.
There were sweet dreams in the night
Of Time long past:
And, was it sadness or delight,
Each day a shadow onward cast
Which made us wish it yet might last--
That Time long past.
There is regret, almost remorse,
For Time long past.
'Tis like a child's belovèd corse
A father watches, till at last
Beauty is like remembrance, cast
From Time long past.
poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley
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To H.a.b. On My Forty-seventh Birthday
WHEN one is forty years and seven,
Is seven and forty sad years old,
He looks not onward for his Heaven,
The future is too blank and cold,
Its pale flowers smell of graveyard mould;
He looks back to his lifeful past;
If age is silver, youth is gold:-
Could youth but last, could youth but last!
He turns back toward his youthful past
A-throb with life and love and hope,
Whose long-dead joys in memory last,
Whose shining days had ample scope;
He turns and lingers on the slope
Whose dusk leads down to sightless death:-
The sun once crowned that darkening cope,
And song once thrilled this weary breath.
Ali, he plods wearily to death,
Adown the gloaming into night,
But other lives breathe joyous breath
In morning's boundless golden light;
Their feet are swift, their eyes are bright,
Their hearts beat rhythms of hope and love,
Their being is a pure delight
In earth below and heaven above.
And you have hope and joy and love,
And you have youth's abounding life,
Whose crystal currents flow above
The stones and sands of care and strife.
May all your years with joys be rifc,
May you grow calmly to your prime,
A maiden sweet, a cherished wife,
A happy mother in due time.
All good you wish me, past my prime,
I wish with better hope to you,
And richer blessings than old Time
And Fate or Fortune found my due:
For you are kind and good and true,
And so when you are forty-seven
May spouse and children in your view
Make Home the happiest life-long Heaven.
poem by James Thomson
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I Don't Know Where The Past Is Gone
I don’t know where the past is gone
I only know most of my own life is over-
I don’t know where the past has gone
I only know so many people I loved
Are no longer here and will never be here again-
I don’t know where the past has gone
I only know that that chance I had that hope for so many years
Can never be mine in the same way again-
I don’t know where the past has gone
So many moments of beauty and love and opportunity missed and longing unrealized-
I don’t know where the past has gone
And what of it I should miss
And why I should long for it so.
I don’t know where the past has gone
And where my life was lost and why I did not do better in it-
I don’t know where the past has gone
And what will be when for me
Everything is only the Past gone
poem by Shalom Freedman
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Only one true perfect love no more searching
Always searching for a love we think we'll never find.
Oh heartache after heartache we start losing faith.
From mistakes we can't escape.
Our shattered dreams start burying us in darkness until we can no longer see the light.
Hate for ourselves and others start building up.
From all the shame, guilt, regret, and lies
we wonder who we are and how we've fallen so far.
Why can't we find someone to love us the way we yearn to be loved?
How does love turn to hate so fast?
Why does everyone give up?
Always searching for a love we think we'll never find.
Oh heartache after heartache we start losing faith.
Oh don't you know u have it.
Oh u have it all.
Jesus loves you.
Always has and always will.
So forget about the world and turn to Jesus.
He knew all our sins and loved us so much
he paid the price and died for us.
No other love can compare or be more true.
He'll never give up on you or forsake you.
So open your heart and turn to him now and watch the chains to your past break away.
Let the guilt and shame fade away.
Because you have been forgiven and set free.
Oh the love u yearn for is with him.
Oh the love u need is in Jesus.
The only true perfect love.
So turn to him now.
Let him love you and make u whole again.
Don't listen to the devils lies.
Your never to far gone, that's just a lie.
Oh remember the devil has been defeated.
Don't let him bring u down with him.
Oh cry out to Jesus now and feel the love he has for you and watch your life be transformed.
You'll never yearn for love again.
That much is true.
Always searching for a love we think we'll never find.
Oh heartache after heartache we start losing faith.
Oh never again.
oh those chains are broken.
I have found love that is true.
Jesus loves me and you
poem by Tiffany R Cooper
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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What I truly wish you, sweet Romanian homeland [Ce-ţi doresc eu ţie, dulce Românie]
What I truly wish you, sweet Romanian homeland,
My beloved country, longing of my soul?
Nervous arms and weapons always close to your hand
And your past of glory guide your lofty goal!
May the wine in goblets boil and curb the crying
If your stately children hold this in esteem
For the rock is standing, but the wave is dying,
Sweet Romanian homeland, this is my big dream!
Yearning for harsh vengeance, black as grave and growing,
Blood of foes on your sword fuming in the air
And above the dragon, with the wind be flowing
Visions of the glory, triumph and bright glare,
Your tricolor banner tell the world entire
The Romanian people is like a swift stream
When a tiny sparkle ignites his pure fire,
Sweet Romanian homeland, this is my big dream!
The angel who always brings us peace and passion,
On the Vesta's altar resting dressed in white,
Who blinds Mars in glory, with his war obsession,
And who gives the whole world from his lamp bright light,
To your maiden bosom may he come, I'm praying,
Make you taste the heaven's happiness supreme,
Therefore, hug him gently, hear what he is saying,
Sweet Romanian homeland, this is my big dream!
What I truly wish you, sweet Romanian homeland,
Youthful bride and loving tenderhearted mom?
May your handsome children live and thrive in your hand
Like the stars of heavens, like the dawns that come,
Everlasting good life, happiness and glory,
Unforgiving weapons, kind Romanian soul,
Pride and dreams of courage, a successful story,
Sweet Romanian homeland, share with me this goal!
poem by Mihai Eminescu, translated by Octavian Cocoş
Submitted by anonym
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Your love, my 'sweetest dream
Loved you with my heart,
my soul and my conscience.
Loved you with all I had,
sort of love that was world blind.
Loved you with my head,
my respect and my loyality.
Loved you with every breeze,
that touched your ideal personality.
Loved you as you are,
you was and you have always been.
Loved you as you would be,
all possible shades that you could be in.
Loved you with my truth,
my life and my genuine.
Loved you with my silence,
my words that are living.
Loved you in my lows,
my highs and my extemes.
Loved you in each mood swings,
your love my sweet dream.
Loved you such love,
undefinable and unspoken.
Loved you such love,
that remained untaken! ! !
poem by Jaya Mishra
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Memory's River
In Nature's bright blossoms not always reposes
That strange subtle essence more rare than their bloom,
Which lies in the hearts of carnations and roses,
That unexplained something by men called perfume.
Though modest the flower, yet great is its power
And pregnant with meaning each pistil and leaf,
If only it hides there, if only abides there,
The fragrance suggestive of love, joy and grief.
Not always the air that a master composes
Can stir human heart-strings with pleasure or pain.
But strange, subtle chords, like the scent of the roses,
Breathe out of some measures, though simple the strain.
And lo! when you hear them, you love them and fear them,
You tremble with anguish, you thrill with delight,
For back of them slumber old dreams without number,
And faces long vanished peer out into sight.
Those dear foolish days when the earth seemed all beauty,
Before you had knowledge enough to be sad;
When youth held no higher ideal of duty
Than just to lilt on through the world and be glad.
On harmony's river they seemed to float hither
With all the sweet fancies that hung round that time-
Life's burdens and troubles turn into air-bubbles
And break on the music's swift current of rhyme.
Fair Folly comes back with her spell while you listen
And points to the paths where she led you of old.
You gaze on past sunsets, you see dead stars glisten,
You bathe in life's glory, you swoon in death's cold.
All pains and all pleasures surge up through those measures,
Your heart is wrenched open with earthquakes of sound;
From ashes and embers rise Junes and Decembers,
Lost islands in fathoms of feeling refound.
Some airs are like outlets of memory's oceans,
They rise in the past and flow into the heart;
And down them float shipwrecks of mighty emotions,
All sea-soaked and storm-tossed and drifting apart:
Their fair timbers battered, their lordly sails tattered,
Their skeleton crew of dead days on their decks;
Then a crash of chords blending, a crisis, an ending-
The music is over, and vanished the wrecks.
poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
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Light
Light uncreated shone upon the earth
born within the stable by virgin birth.
Light immortal descending from above
flooding the world with God's 'agape' love.
Light all radiant illuminates the way
dispels all darkness and brightens each day.
Light inextinguishable e'en in death
Cries 'Father forgive' with His dying breath.
Light indestructible bursts from the grave
rising victorious His loved ones to save.
Light all glorious ascending on high
hidden from sight by the clouds in the sky.
Light everlasting will come again
with His great glory and angelic train.
Light eternal will blaze on and on
when all earthlight has darkened and gone.
Discretion
AH, turn your pretty eyes away!
You would not have me love again?
Love's pleasure does not live a day,
Immortal is Love's pain,
And I am tired of pain.
I have loved once--aye, once or twice;
The pleasure died, the pain lives here;
I will not look in your sweet eyes,
I will not love you, Dear,
Lest you should grow too dear.
For I am weary and afraid.
Have I not seen why life was fair,
And known how good a world God made,
How sweet the blossoms were,
How dear the green fields were?
And I have found how life was gray,
A mist-hung road, a quest in vain,
Until once more Love smiled my way
And fooled me once again,
And taught me grief again.
Now I will gather no more grief;
I only ask to see the sky,
The budding flower, the budding leaf,
And put old dreamings by,
The dreams Love tortures by.
For, being wise, I love no more;
You, if you will, snare with those eyes
Some fool who never loved before,
And teach him to be wise!
For why should you be wise?
poem by Edith Nesbit
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Night
I love to hear the silence of the night.
That time, when distance draws so near,
and memories come, and far sounds,
undisturbed, so close.
For night is dark and only self is true.
A self whose rest and past, are
only breaths away.
Yet for some,
the night may haunt and fear,
its conscience time, when curtains
closed are drawn.
So too, ones inner self and past,
to joy or fright, the
inner spirits will.
It is a blessed thing this night.
Was it not night when Christ came home,
and balanced Judas evil deed.
And blessed night,
when monks now rise and pray,
and Nicodemus,
for lack of sleep,
came home.
The lady of the night came too,
her stumbling led her home.
In the darkness of the well
the Magi saw the stars in day,
and in the psyche dwells our heart.
O Blessed night,
for rolling back the stone,
the angels let in light,
and finished night.
Night no more.
The silence of the night is deeply rich,
and homeward bound, we rest,
and sound our hope
and lasting joy,
dwells here,
in shadows of the night.
poem by Bernard Kennedy
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A Dead Friend
I.
Gone, O gentle heart and true,
Friend of hopes foregone,
Hopes and hopeful days with you
Gone?
Days of old that shone
Saw what none shall see anew,
When we gazed thereon.
Soul as clear as sunlit dew,
Why so soon pass on,
Forth from all we loved and knew
Gone?
II.
Friend of many a season fled,
What may sorrow send
Toward thee now from lips that said
'Friend'?
Sighs and songs to blend
Praise with pain uncomforted
Though the praise ascend?
Darkness hides no dearer head:
Why should darkness end
Day so soon, O dear and dead
Friend?
III.
Dear in death, thou hast thy part
Yet in life, to cheer
Hearts that held thy gentle heart
Dear.
Time and chance may sear
Hope with grief, and death may part
Hand from hand's clasp here:
Memory, blind with tears that start,
Sees through every tear
All that made thee, as thou art,
Dear.
IV.
True and tender, single-souled,
What should memory do
Weeping o'er the trust we hold
True?
Known and loved of few,
But of these, though small their fold,
Loved how well were you!
Change, that makes of new things old,
Leaves one old thing new;
Love which promised truth, and told
True.
V.
Kind as heaven, while earth's control
Still had leave to bind
Thee, thy heart was toward man's whole
Kind.
Thee no shadows blind
Now: the change of hours that roll
Leaves thy sleep behind.
Love, that hears thy death-bell toll
Yet, may call to mind
Scarce a soul as thy sweet soul
Kind.
VI.
How should life, O friend, forget
Death, whose guest art thou?
Faith responds to love's regret,
How?
Still, for us that bow
Sorrowing, still, though life be set,
Shines thy bright mild brow.
Yea, though death and thou be met,
Love may find thee now
Still, albeit we know not yet
How.
VII.
Past as music fades, that shone
While its life might last;
As a song-bird's shadow flown
Past!
Death's reverberate blast
Now for music's lord has blown
Whom thy love held fast.
Dead thy king, and void his throne:
Yet for grief at last
Love makes music of his own
Past.
poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne
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A New Year's Morning Song
Thanksgiving and the voice of melody,
This new year's morning, call me from my sleep;
A new, sweet song is in my heart for Thee,
Thou faithful, tender Shepherd of the sheep;
Thou knowest where to find, and how to keep
The feeble feet that tremble where they stray, —
O'er the dark mountains — through the whelming deep —
Thy everlasting mercy makes its way.
The past is not so dark as once it seemed,
For there Thy footprints, now distinct, I see;
And seed in weakness sown, from death redeemed,
Is springing up, and bearing fruit in Thee.
Not all that hath been, Lord, henceforth shall be;
A low, sweet, cheering strain is in mine ear,
Thanksgiving, and the voice of melody,
Are leading in, from Heaven, a blest new year.
With voice subdued, my listening spirit sings,
As backward on the trodden path I gaze,
While ministering angels fold their wings,
To fill with lowly thoughts my song of praise.
The shadow of the past on future days,
Will make them clear to my instructed sight;
For the heart's knowledge of Thy sacred ways,
Even in its deepest, darkest shades, is light.
I am not stronger — yet I do not fear
The present pain, the conflict yet to be;
Experience is a kind voice in mine ear,
And all my failures bid me lean on Thee.
No future suffering can seem strange to me,
While in the hidden part I feel and know
The wisdom of a child at rest and free
In the tried love, whose judgment keeps him low.
Thanksgiving and the voice of melody!
O, to my tranquil heart how sweet the strain!
Father of mercies, it arose in Thee,
And to Thy bosom it returns again.
There let my grateful song, my soul, remain,
Calm in the risen Savior's tender care;
And welcome any trial, any pain,
That serves to keep thy faithful children there.
Thoughts of Thy love — and O, how great the sum!
Enduring grief, obtaining bliss for me;
The world, life, death, things present, things to come,
All swell a new year's opening melody.
Past, present, future, all things worship Thee;
And I, through all, with trembling joy behold,
While mountains fall, and treacherous visions flee,
Thy wandering sheep returning to the fold.
poem by Anna Laetitia Waring
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Today... 'Father To The Fatherless
The Father of the Fatherless has fathered me.
No more a destitute orphan am I to be
now I've been born again into God's family
for Jesus sacrificed His life and has saved me.
Psalm 68: 5—5 A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
is God in his holy dwelling.
All quotations ©NIV
The Bible calls You by many names
each one giving a glimpse of Your glory.
Like a cut diamond radiating in the sun
with every facet depicting an aspect
of Your Divine Nature.
Today I have thought of You as
'The Carpenters Son'
Matthew 13: 53-58
O Father of the fatherless
in whom all families are blessed
I love the way You father me
You gave me life, forgave the past
now in Your arms I'm safe at last
I love the way You father me
Father me, for ever You'll father me
and in Your embrace I'll be forever secure
I love the way You father me
I love the way You father me
When bruised and broken I draw near
You hold me close and dry my tears
I love the way You father me
At last my fearful heart is still
surrendered to Your perfect will
I love the way You father me
If in my foolishness I stray
returning empty and ashamed
I love the way You father me
Exchanging for my wretchedness
Your radiant robes of righteousness
I love the way You father me
And when I look into Your eyes
from deep within my spirit cries
I love the way You father me
Before such love I stand amazed
and ever will through endless days
I love the way You father me
Graham Kendrick
Sweet Reunion
In the moment I first saw you,
I could swear that we had met,
The look in your eye,
Was so familiar,
Where and when, I forget.
Whispered your name in introduction,
Darling, my heart filled the room,
And I knew it was you, come back in my life.
So we meet again, my long lost friend
Once again, we get to start anew,
And it feels like a thousand years,
Ive been loving you.
Girl have you been waiting here, for someone near,
Searchin the world for a friend,
Come on in, Ive been expecting you
Sweet reunion, welcome home again.
How many lifetimes have I loved you,
How many times have you loved me,
The sound of your voice is in my memory,
Like the wind, on the sea.
The glow of your heart has been my lighthouse,
Ive followed it in from distant shores,
Now I wont be afraid to love anymore.
So we meet again, my long lost friend
Once again, we get to start anew,
And it feels like a thousand years,
Ive been loving you.
Girl have you been waiting here, for someone near,
Searchin the world for a friend,
Come on in, Ive been expecting you
Sweet reunion, welcome home again.
Whatever happens, nothings ever going to be the same,
Now youll find me here at last,
Your loves released me from the past,
My heart and soul have always remembered your name.
Girl have you been waiting here, for someone near,
Searchin the world for a friend,
Come on in, Ive been expecting you
Sweet reunion, welcome home again.
Ive always been loving you
Girl have you been waiting here, for someone near,
Searchin the world for a friend,
Come on in, Ive been expecting you
Sweet reunion, welcome home again.
song performed by by Kenny Loggins
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Moth
The Moth
Goes near it
To seek some light
In its world of darkness
To seek some respite
In its desolate life
To seek some warmth
In its search for love,
Care and belongingness…
The Moth goes near it
Hoping to find
Some acceptance
Some reciprocation
Of its burning desire
For that source of light
But try as he might
He fails, he fails
And he miserably fails…
Every time he goes to it
He comes back
With less of warmth
And a lot less care…
Burns and Scalds
On its bruised body
Because of the Light
That hardly cares
To share its luminance
To shower its radiance
On this hapless victim
Of its crude ignorance…
And yet the Moth
Madly in love
Dedicated to its light
That source of “delight”
Which it hopes
Would be for him
One day –
And pine for him
As he does for her…
He would win over it,
Come what may…
Goes seeking her
Night after night
And every night
He returns back
Burned and scalded
As ever before…
So with all these scalds
And scars of burns
Which he accepts
As the kind
Give-aways
Of his beloved light,
Tired yet devoted
With wings so torn
He can hardly fly…
He still makes
One last attempt
To appease his Beloved -
That luminous light
On one last night.
And he burns and burns
And he so badly burns
His body in ashes…
All over his Beloved’s
Flame of Light.
And in that moment
Of despair and death
Not just the night
Mourns this grave loss
Of love and longing…
The candle-light
Burning bright
For all these nights
Realises the depth
Of the Moth’s
Eternal love for her…
And in a sense of shock
Gives up itself
To the world of
Darkness and Death.
So now the burnt-out,
Withered Wick
Remains the stoic witness
To tell this tragic tale
Of the Moth and the Light
How they met every night
Yet there was no love
Lost nor gained,
Neither realised
Nor reciprocated.
And yet when they couldn’t
Unite in life…
Death found a way out
Heralding their sacred union
In the after-life.
Amen!
poem by Aparna Chatterjee
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Mother, Father
Mother, father please explain to me
Why a world so full of mystery
A place so bitter and still so sweet
So beautiful and yet so full of sad, sad...
Mother, father please explain to me
Why forests march to desert speed
While snowcapped mountains melt away
What do we tell our babies, when do we say, oh
Mother, father please explain to me
How a man who rocks his child to sleep
Pulls the trigger on his brothers heart
He digs a hole right to the middle of this storm of hatred
Mother, father please explain to me
How it could be so this world has come to be
A precious balance in between
Such cruelty and such kindness please
Mother, father please explain to me
How this world has come to be
Unequaled in her blessings, oh, I see
Unbridled hatred so extreme, please tell me
Mother, father please explain to me
How this world has come to be so
Twisted between time and dreams
Oh, mother, father please explain to me
Oh, whats all this talk about?
All this talk about it
Spinning down, down, down, down, down
All this talk about
Endless words without
Nothings done
Mother, father do you know
Why one mans belly overflows
Another sleeps in hungers bed
Oh, we trade our world for a piece of bread
Oh mother, father please explain to me
How this rare worlds come to be
A place so full of color yet overflowing
Always in black and white
Drowning in the waters of our...
Mother, father please explain to me
How this world has come to be
While still blessed in all the things we see
Such a sad, sad home for you and me
Come out, and hold,
Come on out you
Come on out you
Come and save yourself
Come on out you
Come on were taking the water
Were taken the water
Were taken the water
But you know
We got the freedom
We got the freedom
Theres no God above
And no hell below
Oh, its here with us
Its up to us
To keep afloat
How this sweet world has come to be
Oh to keep afloat
Mother, father please explain to me
How this rare world has come to be
Oh, let the blue planet
Let the blue planet
Mother, father please explain to me
Mother, father please explain
song performed by by Dave Matthews Band
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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This is my Father’s World
This is my Father’s world, and to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world: I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;
His hand the wonders wrought.
This is my Father’s world, the birds their carols raise,
The morning light, the lily white, declare their Maker’s praise.
This is my Father’s world: He shines in all that’s fair;
In the rustling grass I hear Him pass;
He speaks to me everywhere.
This is my Father’s world. O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world: the battle is not done:
Jesus Who died shall be satisfied,
And earth and Heav’n be one.
This is my Father’s world, dreaming, I see His face.
I ope my eyes, and in glad surprise cry, “The Lord is in this place.”
This is my Father’s world, from the shining courts above,
The Beloved One, His Only Son,
Came—a pledge of deathless love.
This is my Father’s world, should my heart be ever sad?
The lord is King—let the heavens ring. God reigns—let the earth be glad.
This is my Father’s world. Now closer to Heaven bound,
For dear to God is the earth Christ trod.
No place but is holy ground.
This is my Father’s world. I walk a desert lone.
In a bush ablaze to my wondering gaze God makes His glory known.
This is my Father’s world, a wanderer I may roam
Whate’er my lot, it matters not,
My heart is still at home.
poem by Maltbie Davenport Babcock
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Love Before the Fall
If ever there was one you lost
Either to the sun or to the frost,
Know this, a secret bliss of mine
That everything you ever loved
Alongside everything you ever will
Are one and one in the same.
Every time you love you shall love
All you have loved in the past,
Whether they be places or faces
Lost to memories archives,
They are there, in the trees,
In the sapling, in the valley
Whole they breathe, living still
To receive the love you allow to
Flow throughout your soul.
All you have loved exists beyond
The reach of Death's shadow cast.
All you have loved exits beyond
And shall forever last. So sit,
Sit upon the ground, upon the hill,
Still and embrace the faith you
Could so easily wear upon your
Sleeve in a world without suspicion.
Search the clouds for your loved
Ones smile, swim the ocean sky
For a while and know that though
They may be a thousand miles away
In a different world they remember
You as a soul they left behind.
Those that know are constantly shown,
Revealed to them is the secret concealed,
Healed are they of mourning
Just as peeled are the mysteries of deaths blanket.
All you love is one, and those that
You have lost whether to the hand of death
Or to the foreign soil of a distant land
Well just know that they are all that
Makes you smile upon this plain,
They are the girls you will kiss in
Every future life you bless with your
Presence and never forget that you are
As they to those that love you
And forever a thousand souls shall
Smile your way when they gaze upon
Far distant mountain ranges for though
You have changed and been known strange
To the senses in a thousand forms
So you have been the most familiar kiss
So you have been one in all with bliss
Thus is the love of all,
Thus is love before the fall.
poem by David Lacey
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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